Forum for Science, Industry and Business

Satellite imagery shows a weaker Hurricane Andres

Infrared-light imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite on June 2 shows a weaker Hurricane Andres. The weakening of the storm is apparent in the storm's structure, as it has lost its eye and no longer appears perfectly rounded.

This infrared-light image from NOAA's GOES-West satellite shows a weaker Hurricane Andres on June 2 at 1200 UTC (8 a.m. EDT), Tropical Storm Blanca is (right) southwest.

Credits: NASA/NOAA GOES Project

The GOES-West image, taken at 1200 UTC (8 a.m. EDT) was created by the NASA/NOAA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The image also shows fragmented bands of thunderstorms southeast of the center.

At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), the center of Hurricane Andres was located near latitude 17.2 North, longitude 122.2 West. About 890 miles (1,430 km) west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. Andres is moving toward the northwest near 10 mph (17 km/h).

This general motion is expected to continue today, followed by a turn toward the north and a decrease in forward speed on Wednesday.

Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 105 mph (165 kph) with higher gusts. Continued weakening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Andres is expected to become a tropical storm tonight or Wednesday. The estimated minimum central pressure is 969 millibars (28.62 inches).

Even though Andres is weakening it is still generating ocean swells that affecting portions of the west coast of the Baja California peninsula. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) cautioned that these swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.

NHC Forecaster Daniel Brown noted that Andres will soon be moving over sea surface temperatures of less than 26 degrees Celsius and into a drier and more stable environment. "These unfavorable conditions will cause steady weakening, and Andres is forecast to weaken to a tropical storm within 24 hours, and become a post-tropical cyclone in 72 hours, if not sooner."

Rob Gutro | EurekAlert!

Im Focus: The coldest reaction

With ultracold chemistry, researchers get a first look at exactly what happens during a chemical reaction

The coldest chemical reaction in the known universe took place in what appears to be a chaotic mess of lasers. The appearance deceives: Deep within that...

Im Focus: How do scars form? Fascia function as a repository of mobile scar tissue

Abnormal scarring is a serious threat resulting in non-healing chronic wounds or fibrosis. Scars form when fibroblasts, a type of cell of connective tissue, reach wounded skin and deposit plugs of extracellular matrix. Until today, the question about the exact anatomical origin of these fibroblasts has not been answered. In order to find potential ways of influencing the scarring process, the team of Dr. Yuval Rinkevich, Group Leader for Regenerative Biology at the Institute of Lung Biology and Disease at Helmholtz Zentrum München, aimed to finally find an answer. As it was already known that all scars derive from a fibroblast lineage expressing the Engrailed-1 gene - a lineage not only present in skin, but also in fascia - the researchers intentionally tried to understand whether or not fascia might be the origin of fibroblasts.

Fibroblasts kit - ready to heal wounds

Im Focus: McMaster researcher warns plastic pollution in Great Lakes growing concern to ecosystem

Research from a leading international expert on the health of the Great Lakes suggests that the growing intensity and scale of pollution from plastics poses serious risks to human health and will continue to have profound consequences on the ecosystem.

In an article published this month in the Journal of Waste Resources and Recycling, Gail Krantzberg, a professor in the Booth School of Engineering Practice...

Im Focus: Machine learning microscope adapts lighting to improve diagnosis

Prototype microscope teaches itself the best illumination settings for diagnosing malaria

Im Focus: Small particles, big effects: How graphene nanoparticles improve the resolution of microscopes

Conventional light microscopes cannot distinguish structures when they are separated by a distance smaller than, roughly, the wavelength of light. Superresolution microscopy, developed since the 1980s, lifts this limitation, using fluorescent moieties. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have now discovered that graphene nano-molecules can be used to improve this microscopy technique. These graphene nano-molecules offer a number of substantial advantages over the materials previously used, making superresolution microscopy even more versatile.

Microscopy is an important investigation method, in physics, biology, medicine, and many other sciences. However, it has one disadvantage: its resolution is...